The old Texas mission is historic, but the area surrounding it feels less so — overgrown with hotels and office buildings. Now a Philadelphia firm has been hired to oversee a renovation of the site, with the aim of restoring a sense of reverence and history to the popular landmark.

In what appears to be a case of survival of the fittest with a building preservation twist, one Darby resident has taken it upon himself to try and save a few of the countless historical buildings in the borough that are slowly spoiling under the swelling shadow of blight. The question is, which will live on and which will become scrap?

Among his saving projects, John Haigis, The Inquirer‘s Laura McCrystal reports, has been fighting to preserve a vacant white building that neighbors his own home on Main Street.”It has character,” he says of the deteriorating property, which, to his credit, he acknowledges is just another load on the already heavy historical building burden in Darby:

“I think there’s a blessing and a curse,” Haigis said. “The blessing is, we have such incredible historic fabric. The curse is, we have so many old buildings, they overwhelm available resources.”

Philadelphia Archidiocese workers started removing icons from the 132-year-old Gothic St. Laurentius church this week, including the altar and Stations of the Cross. A group of congregants that sent an appeal to the Vatican to keep the church open waits for Rome’s decision. Meanwhile, its leader, Kate Kuenstler, tells the Inquirer, “A consecrated space should have all of its consecrated materials in it.”

The interior of Gladwyne Methodist Church, soon to be converted to residential space.

Main Line reBUILD has secured approval from Lower Merion Township—in a unanimous 12-0 vote—to move forward with the development of 310-324 Righters Mill Road. The hearing officers were impressed by the company’s ability to balance preservationist concerns with contemporary neighborhood priorities, including parking and the maintenance of the old structures. They even quoted John Keats when referring to reBUILD’s plans, and for a company specializing in adaptive reuse, you can’t do better than that.

The project includes the conversion of the circa-1842 Gladwyne Methodist Church, the church parsonage and the adjacent Odd Fellows Hall into rather luxurious residential space. To wit:

As if decriminalizing marijuana weren’t enough, City Councilman Jim Kenney has proposed a double whammy of legislation that could improve the city’s inadequate system of preserving historic properties. From the Inquirer:

City Councilman James Kenney introduced two bills Thursday: One would transfer $500,000 to the [Philadelphia Historic] commission, the other would add at least 1,000 properties to the city’s register of historic places. There are thousands of Philadelphia properties on the National Register of Historic Places that are not on the local register.

“If it’s significant enough to be on the federal list, it could be significant enough to be on the local register,” Kenney said.

The Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia has been handing out its Preservation Achievement Awards for 21 years. Last night’s honorees were a disparate group, from the looming behemoth Municipal Services Building to a one-man guard station in Fairmount Park. Unlike many other awards ceremonies (Oscars, Keystone Press Awards), this one was brisk, informative and flawlessly executed. Emcee Tracy Davidson, of NBC-10, was superb, and I say that without any hint of local-news-directed snark, I promise.

Here are my own superlatives for the evening.

Most Ridiculously Deserved Award
The Henry J. Magaziner EFAIA Award to Friends of the Boyd’s Howard Haas for his preservation efforts on behalf of the Boyd Theatre (above, in a photo from the Irvin R. Glazer Theater Collection, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia).

The proposed adaptive reuse of St. Margaret’s Church, also known as the Gleason Center, made headway this past Wednesday after the Narberth Planning Commission voted to recommend approval for the project.

Developer Ted Moser plans to convert the church to a condo with four two-bedroom units and underground garage with eight parking spaces, while making minimal changes to the building’s exterior. However, certain conditions must be met before the conversion can go through, according to the Main Line Times:

Detail of the church in question. Original photo by Smallbones via Wikimedia.

Real estate developer and Trolley Car Diner owner Ken Weinstein sent out an email to many, many people (from Pete Hoskins to Terry Gillen) to alert them to a…disagreement he’s having with the IBEW over his construction of a Waldorf School campus on Wayne Avenue in Germantown. Weinstein says the diner has been subject to union protests outside.

The president of Weinstein Properties and Philly Office Retail, Weinstein isn’t a newbie to development; he’s been in the business for 24 years, and currently owns and manages 500,000-plus square feet of commercial space. Additionally, Weinstein has been something of an eatery investor, founding (and selling) the Cresheim Cottage Cafe, and buying up the Trolley Car Diner in Mt. Airy and Trolley Car Cafe in East Falls — the two neighborhoods, along with Germantown, into which he puts most of his energies.

Before we look at the union battle, let’s assess Weinstein’s latest project: the conversion of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church — designed by Frank Furness and George Hewitt — on the 6000 block of Wayne Avenue.

Each year, Preservation PA puts out “Pennsylvania At Risk,” a statewide report identifying a handful of properties threatened by “demolition, significant deterioration, vandalism, inappropriate alteration, and/or loss of historic setting demolition.” The recently released 2013 list includes the Blue Horizon (not a big surprise) and a midcentury building in Montco.

Once a Public Federal Savings Bank, the latter’s modern architecture might have deemed it innovative in its heyday. But its attractive, clean-cut style has since become ubiquitous and is more often than not missed by passersby, or discounted from being a historic building.

Yesterday, Philly mag conducted a poll that asked the question: “Is it time to tear down the Boyd?” A startling 84 percent of respondents said, “Yes, it’s time for a new beginning.”

But the actual decision-making entity, the Philadelphia Historical Commission, tabled the vote yesterday until Friday, February 14th.

According to the Inquirer, longtime champions for the Boyd’s conservation are livid and believe it was “a lack of patience and public will” that resulted in inadequate maintenance and lost preservation opportunities. Friends of the Boyd President Howard Haas pointed to similar situations that ended successfully, saying, “almost every major U.S. city has a restored downtown movie palace.”